REGIONAL – Toolkit for Affordable Housing Development

The Coalition for Smarter Growth prioritizes the production and preservation of affordable housing, especially with access to transportation choices and jobs, as one critical element of truly interconnected, sustainable communities.

Explaining the Facts and Myths on Affordable Housing

This 2009 publication from the Washington Area Housing Partnership is designed as a comprehensive set of best practices, policy examples, financial tools and advocacy models to help explain and gain support for effective local affordable housing production and preservation. It was authored in part to respond to persistent misconceptions in the media and public’s understanding of what affordable housing is, and how it can be successfully achieved in communities.

One Stop Shopping for Best Practices

The toolkit summarizes a full set of commonly-used local initiatives to finance, design, create and provide direct support for families in need of affordable housing.

The toolkit also includes an inventory of current affordable housing programs employed in each jurisdiction within the DC Metropolitan region.

What Progress Has Been Made?

This toolkit is a relevant update to the 2004 report card, “The Affordable Housing Progress Report,” created by the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities, (now merged into the Coalition for Smarter Growth.) It provides a one-stop shopping resource to inform community members and decision-makers alike on the many alternatives available to tailor and include meaningful affordable housing policies and practices in all communities.

The Coalition has been an effective and leading advocate for adoption of these best practices in localities across the metropolitan region, showing how policies have been successful, and how they can be improved, in peer jurisdictions.